Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
One thing that sets WordPress apart from other blogging platforms is its easy-to-use components which are important in optimizing a WordPress website for search engine ranking. Because it’s easy to update and maintain, posting new contents every so often will not be difficult. And that would do your SEO good because search engines are likely to detect the relevant content on your site enough for them to make your site appear on the first page of the search results.
A good performing website not only provides excellent user experience, but it also contributes to SEO campaign. Hence, it is important to know how to optimize your WordPress site to achieve the desired site performance. It is important to know how to work around the WordPress components below to ensure that the site satisfies the users in terms of their experience on your site.
- Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Disk. A non-shared local disk gives the most reliable and excellent performance compared to shared storage facility. Data redundancy cannot be compromised even when using cloud-based solution. - MySQL. You should make sure that the query cache is enabled. MySQL is definitely a scalable relational data store and it’s important that it is freeing up resources for more relevant things than redundant queries. Use mysqltuner, a tool for ensuring table performance is optimal. Ensure that your data store isn’t congested and analyze the queries generated by your theme and plugins. Reducing database load can make a big impact on your site.
- PHP. No doubt PHP is slow and it’s no one’s fault. Technology just moves fast. You just need to remember that the larger the memory usage, execution time is greater. Also, you should take advantage of PHP 5’s auto load to reduce memory usage. You should avoid loops to reduce execution time and memory usage. Avoid opening more files than necessary as it will reduce calls to disk and memory usage. And lastly, you should use “include and require” instead of “include_once and require_once”.
To run your site at peak performance, fine tuning your WordPress install is necessary.
- Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.Plugins. Make sure your WordPress plugins are up to date; disable unused plugin so they don’t use valuable resources and load unnecessary code. This will save space on your servers and ensure that the vulnerabilities are protected from developers that no longer support their plugin code. - Use WordPress Caching. WordPress has a lot of good caching tool such as W3 Total Cache, BatCache and WPSuperCache. These plug-ins speed up your site and lead to a large number of benefits for visitors and users who re-visit your site.
- Browser Caching. This will help reduce server load as it limits the number of requests per page. Browsers will cache static files like images, CSS, JavaScript, etc. on the user’s computer if you set the correct files headers on such static files. The browser can check to see if files have changed instead of just requesting them. The web server can answer 304 responses that will confirm that a file is unchanged and not get 200 responses which require the file to be sent.
- Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.CDN (Content Delivery Network). This will allow you to store images and large files on third-party clustered servers around the world which can bring your content closer to your site users and speed up your site’s downloading time. - Avoid Using the Google SiteMap Generator Plugin. This plugin prevents adding new changes as they occur because every time the sitemap changes, it rebuilds itself. To counter this limitation, you should use another WordPress plugin from WordPress repository.
- Minify. Minification is important in enhancing end user experience. A reduced file size and less number of files will have a dramatic impact on the user’s experience of your site. Use WordPress tools that support minification and pick one that caches the minified files to disks, supports local and remote files, and compatible with CDN and mobile plugins.
- Widgets. If you are not cautious, widgets that draw comments of posts can considerably increase your load if they are not handled properly. If you’re using loads of widgets, you should use the WP Widget Cache plugin to reduce the processing time for their output.
Improving your site’s loading time, optimizing your website for search engines and adding new pages are tasks you should not worry about when using WordPress. Even if you have an e-commerce site, database management is easily incorporated on WordPress.
Just in case web design is your concern, there are themes available that can easily be tweaked. Two of the most popular themes used in creating a website through WordPress are Headway or Thesis theme. If you want to know which theme to use, take a look at this article to know the advantage and disadvantage of those themes.
The post The Developer’s Guide to Optimizing a WordPress Site appeared first on YourWebDesignerTeam Blog.